john999

The thing you have to worry about if you are a 100% vet is when you approch the 20 year mark. That is when the VA may decide to look at you. Since I have been IU I have filed numberous claims and they have never looked at my IU rating. They just add another 10%. If you bugg the VA enough then I guess they might just look at you even if you are over 55. It does not pay to be greedy, but if you find you have a potentially fatal SC condition I would file for it. When I found I had CAD and it was probably secondary to DMII I filed because most likely that is what is going to kill me one day.

Bob If you get denied is the time to hire a lawyer. Many lawyers won't even represent you until you have been denied a few times. However, in the end a lawyer with good evidence will ususally win the claim. The SSA will often send you for an exam. The exams are like VA C&P's.

The vet with ALS is going to probably need nursing home care. Very important to get his claim accepted and get a 100% rating so if he needs this care he does not have to go on medicade. If he has a spouse the burden of caring for a person as they decend into ALS is tremendous. Some die quickly and some it takes a long time and they need complete help with chores of living. In these cases the spouses always suffer because the ALS person goes through every dime getting treatment and still ends up destitute on medicade.

Wow, don't spend it all in one place. That retro should set you up pretty good. You got your 100% and a cherry on top!

If you have a total rating there is even more protection after 5 years. The VA needs strong evidence to reduce you. The VBM lays it out. They can't just give you a C&P exam and reduce you. They have to consider your entire record. How many people over 55 who have a total rating are ever going back to work? Even if they were able to work no one would hire them except maybe the VA.

Vetslady There was a determination letter that described why I was disabled under SSA. The VA is required to keep your claim open for a certain amount of time during the claim process. Sometimes after you have sent them all you have you can tell them to just decide the matter on what they have and not wait. I have gotten letters like that before but it did not have to be signed by a VSO.

I think you should get IU but I can't tell how long you will have to wait. If you don't get SSD or SSI you should get it. Hire a lawyer for the SSD. How do you live? Are you getting fee base from the VA or do they let you go to the VA for care?

If you are getting methadone and vicodin then that indicates severe pain condition. I think this would help a IU claim. One thing for sure driving a car or being around any work conditions where you need sharp attention is out for you. I took vicodine today and left two of my favorite CD's at the mall where I was listening to them. I don't remember what happened until I got home. That is the dope working on my brain. I have chronic pain disorder. It is actually responsible for me losing my job. Both vicodin and methadone can cause depression and mood swings. When I take vicodin I start to get angry. It is chemical with me. I took methadone, morphine, percoset and vicodin. Vicodin and percoset are the most addictive because they are quick acting. Don't mix any of this stuff with alcohol even if it helps the pain. Yes, methadone was a cure for heroin addiction. Heroin is a cure for morphine addiction. Methadone made me itch like crazy.

You should get corrected DD215 to show the CAR. Having a CAR will make it much easier. Do you have orders awarding the CAR?

That form is different. I have never seen something exactly like that before. It could be harmless, but I would want more information. We all get the "If you want us to go ahead and make a decision with what we have" letter. That may be a variation on that theme. This may be the VA trying to speed up the process, so you can't come back at them and claim there is more evidence out there they should have gotten.

Ask for a DRO Hearing not just a review. If that fails you can go to the BVA.

The thing is you don't know what evidence the VA considered until you get a decision. I say if you have sent them all evidence then tell them you want your claim decided now. The sooner you get the decision back the sooner you can appeal if they have excluded some evidence. The VA called me about a SMC issue and asked if I had any more evidence. I said "NO" and two weeks later I got the award. Waiting a year while you claim sits in a pile for a year just means nothing happens for a year. With SSA records I took a copy of my award letter and a letter saying what the award was for to the VA and put it into their hands. I also took my disability retirement, my voc rehab denial and my letter from the post office that showed my retirement date and gave it to the VA. The sooner you get the denial or low ball rating back the sooner you can appeal is my motto.

Yes, they pulled your C-File to make a copy, so that is helping to hold up your DRO. Did the VA send you a letter to confirm you are getting a DRO Review/Hearing? Be sure that is what they are doing. I asked for a DRO when they first started doing them and the VA had mistakely certified my claim to the BVA. I got there in time to stop them from sending my file to D.C. Two years is a very long time to be waiting on a DRO.

Your unit in Vietnam may have a website. That is how I found one of my buddies I had not heard from in 35 years.

See, the wait for the initial decision is usually just the beginning. Then come the appeals and remands. This is why a vet will say it took five or ten years to get rated. He means after being denied or low balled he appealed and appealed.

The epidurals may or may not take a while depending if they sedate you using a line into your vein. My epidurals hurt sometimes a little, but have done me no good. They do help my private pain doctor make his boat payment. Usually they give you a series of these florescope guided injections. The streroids you get can cause mood swings. Some people get great relief from symptoms for a while. You may be black and blue for a few days. There is not scientific proof these injections help or hurt the vast majority of patients. They are a big source of income for pain doctors.

There is a guy here who was medically retired and then the VA said they could find no medical condition on which to rate him. Yes, that is Rockhound. Booted out for schizoprenia and then the VA says he has a Personality Disorder so no compensation. The more documentation in a person's SMR's the better. The army threw me out as a PD and VA said schizophrenia, and rated me. Nothing is certain with these guys.

You know the last time I got a copy of a C&P exam from my VAMC the words "Do not release this report to the Veteran" were written across the top. The person in records released it anyway. If QTC does the exam the VA will often force you to get it from the VARO instead of the VAMC where it was done. These are medical records and you have a right to them. Why do they try and hide this from us? Do they think we will go berserk, or is it to not let us get a jump on the process? Seems the VA spends a lot of time trying to hide things from us. The VARO hides from us. Everyone throws a smoke screen up to hide the process. They hide for a reason and it can't be good.

You need to check to see what address the VA has for you. Do you have a bank for direct deposit? That is the best way. Just make sure you know where that check is going. If it is "return to sender address unknown" it ain't good. Be sure your forwarding address is current and in effect if you have moved recently. If you don't get direct deposit get a P.O. Box. You can move around but you mail goes to the PO box.

You have one year to send in a Notice of disagreement. Be damn sure you do that. It sounds to me like you got an idiot for a c&p examination. This happens when the person doing the exam has no idea what they are doing. Your PTSD exam should have been done by a psychiatrist. Did you have combat action badge or CIB or PH?

I think it means you are going to get either 100% or IU for the PTSD. Have you filed for SSD? How many of the other conditions are service connected. You might be able to get the heart problems service connected to agent orange. This would be another boost to your rating possibly. Do you have ishemic heart disease? Did you have a heart attack. If the heart or the HBP or service connected it would help. I think your PTSD, HBP, and Heart are potential SC conditions. PTSD for sure.

A hospitalization can be an informal or inferred claim for a benefit or an increase in a benefit. The VA used my 2001 hospitalization as the effective date for my TDIU. That was an EED from the 2002 date they gave me first. The VA never tells vets to file within one year of discharge. They never tell you anything. They leave that up to you or your VSO. When I was hospitalized in 1972 which was within a year of my discharge someone filed on my behalf. I don't remember who did it. I didn't do it. I think the DAV or VFW did it while I was in the hospital. My disability ED went back to one day after discharge. I think some sort of claims process should be automatic. Maybe a letter to the vet asking if he wishes to file a claim and warning about the one year time frame. This would defeat the VA's main objective which is to save money at the vet's expense, so don't hold your breath. The VA places cost ahead of veteran health,compensation, or any other benefit. If they can save a buck, at your expense the will do it. 40 years of dealing with them has given me a bad attitude.

Halos Those probably are their motives for the pro bono advocacy. Pro bono work is something big firms do for PR. You won't find many small law firms doing pro bono work. Most lawyers doing vet claims are probably on their own or working for small firms.

That doctor sounds like he has some deficiency in brain cells. Where do they get these guys?

I appealed just as soon as I got the denial of Chapter 35. You have one year to file your NOD. You could even ask for reconsideration on the chapter 35 but you still have one year to appeal.